Trump’s war on drugs a ‘pretext’, says former US diplomat
Charles Samuel Shapiro, the former US ambassador to Venezuela, says the US anti-drug operations in the Caribbean are a cover-up to depose Maduro.
“It’s a pretext. If you look at the US government’s own reports, drugs coming into the United States from Venezuela are minimal, so declaring these people to be ‘narco-terrorists’ – it makes no sense,” Shapiro said.
“Cocaine is not produced in Venezuela. It is Colombian cocaine that’s transiting Venezuela, most of it, en route to Europe, not to the United States. Some of it does go to the United States … fentanyl is not produced in Venezuela. Fentanyl is produced in Mexico.”
Shapiro also noted that Trump on Friday said he would pardon the former president of Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was sentenced to 45 years in prison in the US last year after being extradited from Honduras on charges of drug trafficking.
“The whole drug trafficking thing is simply a pretext,” Shapiro reiterated.